Age-related performance declines

Athletes may be able to compete for decades, but they are not immune to the effects of aging.

“In general, performance declines linearly at about 5 to 10 percent per decade from age 30 years to around 60 to 65 years — less of a decline in those master athletes who train hard — after which the decline accelerates,” Peter Reaburn, PhD, a professor of exercise and sports science at Bond University in Australia, told Healthline.

This can vary by activity.

“Performances in speed and power events appear to decline at a slightly faster rate than endurance events,” said Reaburn.

He added that this is “related to drops in muscle mass. Hence the importance of weight training to hold onto muscle mass.”

Athletes in nonweight-bearing sports, like cycling and swimming, may see smaller drops compared with sports that include weight-bearing exercises like running.

Several found that short- and long-distance triathletes saw smaller age-related declines in cycling performance than running and swimming performance.

Other factors are also affected by age.

“Starting in their early 30s, endurance athletes begin to experience a decline in some of the markers of fitness — aerobic capacity, [lactate] threshold, and economy,” said , an endurance sports coach, and author of several training books, including “Fast After 50: How to Race Strong for the Rest of Your Life.”

suggests that a decline in VO2max — the maximum volume of oxygen that an athlete can use — is the primary factor behind age-related drops in performance.

“Aerobic capacity — VO2max — declines at the rate of about 1 to 2 percent per year, depending on how the athlete trains,” said Reaburn.

Lactate threshold is the exercise intensity at which athletes can sustain high-intensity effort only for a short time.

Exercise economy — the efficiency at which athletes turn metabolic energy into mechanical power or velocity — “seems to be the most stable of the three markers,” said Friel.

Athletes aging gracefully

Older athletes are prone to many of the same problems that affect the performance of younger athletes — genetics, injuries, motivation.

But not at higher levels.

“Research suggests that aging does not cause an unusually high risk of injury,” said Friel, “since the body adapts throughout life to the stress and strains of the sport.”

That means declines are mainly due to the normal aging processes.

“In speed and power sports, it’s muscle mass and nervous system declines,” said Reaburn. “In endurance events, it’s the same, but also declines in the cardiovascular system — in particular, a decline in maximal heart rate and the ability to pump oxygen to working muscles.”

So you may not be able to prevent performance drops as you age, but you can minimize them.

“Use it or lose it, definitely,” said Reaburn.

A 2002 of female endurance athletes found that declines in VO2max were linked to reductions in exercise training volume and intensity.

Athletes also need to choose their activities carefully.

“Long, slow distance training — which is what most are inclined to do as they get older — has been shown to reduce aerobic capacity relative to what it may be with high-intensity training,” said Friel.